Similar hearts
by Rogercat
Summary: Celebrian gets to meet some of her relatives after her recovery in the Gardens of Lorien


For Celebrian, Valinor was… well, unlike anything else before in her life. However, she was actually grateful for that she had been born in the Second Age, rather than the First. Life had been enough dangerous for her various relatives without thinking of a child to protect and by all means, both Galadriel and Celeborn had been lucky enough for surviving when they could have been slain.

"I hope...that this will go alright…"

While never a shy or withdrawn person, the time where she had been a prisoner and tormented by the orcs had left its marks. Like that poisonous wound near her left eye, that had slowly taken her sight and nearly making her blind despite all her beloved Elrond's attempt to stop it. She was no longer stranger to surprise reaction at someone seeing the scars on her face and arms, she had insisted on keeping the scars as a reminder of that she had survived.

Right now, Celebrian was about to meet some of her expanded family members she had never met, at the house of her most famous uncle. It had been Finrod, of all people, to greet her at the docks when her ship had arrived and immediately fixed a carriage that would bring her to the Gardens of Lorien, driving the carriage himself at seeing how close his niece had been to Fading because of her trauma. Now afterwards when she was fully recovered as she could be, it was almost a bit of fun in that Galadriel had neglected to tell a younger Celebrian that Finrod could not be trusted to drive a horse-drawn carriage in high speed unless you wanted to have that kind of motion-sickness certain Mortals could suffer from.

"Welcome, dear niece. Not everyone have arrived yet, we did not think it wise for them to possibly make you uncomfortable," Finrod greeted with open arms when she stepped out of her carriage. Behind him, his heavy pregnant wife Amarië bowed her head in greeting to Celebrian, not moving much because of the extra weight she had to carry.

"I hope that twins do not run in the family, I had enough with my boys!" Celebrian joked, trying to push down the memory of her three children and how they had cried when she boarded the ship.

"Oh, no worry, it is just one I am dealing with even before birth. And it seems like your generation is more towards girls than the previous one, she will be the third one with you and Finduilas! My darling just enjoy spoiling her already with songs when she refuses to let me sleep at night," Amarië laughed as they walked inside.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Inside the reception room, a couple were already sitting on a couch, speaking to each others softly as they sat very close to each others. Yet something was different, in fact both of them had faint scars on their bodies when it was almost never seen in Valinor.

"Finduilas, Gwindor, Celebrian have arrived."

Now it was more obvious of the kinship: Where Celerian had inherited the silver hair from Celeborn, Finduilas' golden hair had similar curls that they had gotten from their shared grandmother Eärwen. Revealing her maternal lineage from a different branch of the Sindar, Finduilas had green eyes that shore with passion and inner strength. At her side, Gwindor did not have the aged look of old Mortals that he had carried the last years of his old life, now his hair was a dark brown colour to the point of almost black and his grey eyes hinted to that he was more like his old self before his enslavement. Both of them wore rather loose clothing that hung straight down from the shoulders without any hint of the body shape, a style much favored in Nargothrond and rumoured of being created by Finduilas when she wanted to make a unique dress style for the court of Finrod as King. Or just something comfortable everyone would be able to wear.

"Oh, how nice to see _someone_ new wearing their scars with pride! People can be so stupid at times, acting as if we have done something wrong by requesting the scars to be on our new bodies!"

Finduilas carefully shifted the left side of her wrap-over top, revealing a very faded but still visible scar where the spear had hit to kill her. And Gwindor silently held up his hand, where a thin scar were around the wrist.

"It may not be visible, but I can sometimes feel a shadow of the scars Findaráto would have if he had survived the duel with the werewolf."

Despite learning Sindarin after his rebirth, Amarië still preferred to use Finrod's name in Quenya. Not that anyone minded, if she was used to it why make a fuss about it?

"Gil-galad promised to visit you at some point, he says that he was very disappointed to miss you and Elrond marrying. And Lord Maedhros may want some news about Elrond as well, he is living in the north of Valinor with some few followers and his maternal family so he is not alone," Gwindor spoke after drinking some tea.

"Oh, Elrond would be so happy to hear that Maedhros is reborn! He misses them still to this day, both Maedhros and Maglor!"

Elrond was a safe topic of conversation, they all seemed to agree on that. Finrod even added in the news that Celebrimbor so far had refused rebirth but that most of the family thought that he could change his mind if there ever was news of Sauron being defeated for good.

"Sounds like him indeed, we all felt like fools when his true personality was revealed. I can only imagine the shame Aulë must have felt at the news that his own former Maia was spreading death and destruction like that…."

To be fair, no one could blame Celebrimbor for the joy of finding someone who seemed to share his thirst for creating beautiful items that was art in itself. The death of his close Dwarven friend Narvi had been a hard blow for him and now at looking back, it was not impossible that Sauron had sensed that vulnerability in Celebrimbor.

"That reminds me," Finrod hurried out of the room and returned with a letter in his hands, "Maeglin is also reborn and have already offered to create something if you want to feel protected by the presence of a hidden dagger somewhere under your clothing. He have already made two masked as a matching set of hairpins for those two lovebirds when he learnt that they had married, something about not feeling all defenceless even in a peaceful land as Valinor. The ones he made for Anairë at her last Begetting-day was most stunning indeed..."

Reading though the short letter, Celebrian borrowed a quill and some ink to write down a request for Maeglin at the end of the parchment. She knew that Elrond had liked her in turquoise and a such hairpin would look great to wear on the day he too arrived to Valinor, when that day came.

"I would be much pleased if I could help our second-cousin in some way."

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Author's note: That part about Finrod not being a safe driver with horse-drawn carriages was mostly for the fun of giving him a little flaw, he loves horses and they love him in return, he just never seem to get it right when driving in higher speed!

It is not mentioned in-canon which hand poor Gwindor lost prior to escaping, so you will have to imagine either one.

Since Aredhel and Galadriel were first cousins though their fathers, this would make Celebrian and Maeglin second-cousins. With Orodreth as a brother to Galadriel, Finduilas and Celebrian is first cousins.


End file.
